By the Smoke and the Smell: My Search for the Rare and Sublime on the Spirits Trail Audiobook

We care so much about the food we eat: how it is made, by whom, and where. Yet we are far less careful about the spirits we drink, often allowing the biggest brands with the most marketing dollars to control the narrative. In By the Smoke and the Smell, Vogler is here to set the record straight. This remarkable memoir is the first book to ask the tough questions about the booze industry: where our spirits come from, who makes them, and at what cost.

By the Smoke and the Smell is also a celebration of the people and places behind the most singular, life-changing spirits on earth. Vogler takes us to Normandy, where we drink calvados with lovable Vikings; to Cuba, a country where Vogler lived for a time, and that has so much more to offer than cigars, classic cars, and mojitos; to the jagged cliffs and crystal-clear lochs of Scotland; to Northern Ireland, Oaxaca, Armagnac, Cognac, Kentucky, and California. Alternately hilarious and heartfelt, Vogler’s memoir will open your eyes to the rich world of traditional, small-scale distilling—and in the process, it will completely change the way you think about and buy spirits.

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“You can learn practical things from this book—like how to smell Cognac…Bring the spirit only close enough so you can just sense the aroma, appreciating its qualities from a distance. There’s nothing distant or pedantic, however, about Vogler’s bracing, deeply personal narrative of his travels through the homelands of Calvados, Cognac, Armagnac, rum, scotch and mezcal, in search of the soul of those spirits…Vogler’s stories are heartfelt, wise, and moving.”

— New York Times Book Review